Contemporary Literary Criticism | Fast, Howard - Christopher Hitchens (review date 25 November 1990)

Christopher Hitchens (review date 25 November 1990)

SOURCE: “Citizen Howard Fast,” in Washington Post Book World, November 25, 1990, p. 5.

[In the following review of Being Red, Hitchens praises Fast's engaging recollections, though he finds fault in his writing.]

Murray Kempton once told me what he called the only really funny story about American Communism, adding that unlike many such stories it had the merit of being true. In the early 1950s, Howard Fast was walking along a New York street when he encountered the cultural attache of an Eastern European mission. Bidding good day to Comrade Fast, the attache asked if he would be attending next week's special caviar-and-culture soiree, to be held at the mission in the interests of peace and brotherhood. Stiffening slightly, Fast replied that if the comrade read the newspapers he would know that fascism was coming to the United States and that, as a direct consequence he,...

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